Report: Tsarnaevs motivated by opposition to Iraq and Afghan wars, learned how to build bombs from Al Qaeda online magazine; Update: Bought “fireworks” in February

posted at 1:21 pm on April 23, 2013 by Allahpundit

From his hospital bed, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has acknowledged his role in planting the explosives near the marathon finish line on April 15, the officials said. The first successful large-scale bombing in the post-Sept. 11, 2001, era, the Boston attack killed three people and wounded more than 250 others.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe an ongoing investigation, said Dzhokhar and his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed by police as the two attempted to avoid capture, do not appear to have been directed by a foreign terrorist organization.

Rather, the officials said, the evidence so far suggests they were “self-radicalized” through Internet sites and U.S. actions in the Muslim world. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has specifically cited the U.S. war in Iraq, which ended in December 2011 with the removal of the last American forces, and the war in Afghanistan, where President Obama plans to end combat operations by the end of 2014.

Obama has made repairing U.S. relations with the Islamic world a foreign policy priority, even as he has expanded drone operations in Pakistan and other countries, which has inflamed Muslim public opinion.

Bad news for liberal narratives in one sense, but good in another: They’ve been grasping for ways to say “it’s not them, it’s us” and now they’ve got an easy one, Obama’s stewardship of Afghanistan notwithstanding. Beats the current leading theory about Tamerlan Tsarnaev possibly having taken too many punches to the face, no?

As for how they learned to make the bombs, watch Pete Williams below. Truth, or a lie designed to throw the feds off the scent of whoever might have trained them? Well, go back to this post from last Tuesday, two days before the bombers were identified. Intelwire had already raised an eyebrow at the fact that pressure-cooker bombs were used, since there had been articles in “Inspire” on how to build that sort of device. The Jawa Report also noted that Naser Jason Abdo, the would-be Fort Hood bomber, got caught with pressure cookers and other bomb materials in his hotel room when he was pinched in 2011. Also found in the room: A copy of “Inspire.” I remember people giggling when the magazine debuted because the bomb-making instructions were entitled, “How to Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom,” but it worked. The man responsible for it, Samir Khan, is long since dead in a U.S. airstrike — but not as the primary target. He was killed by the same missile that took out his pal, Anwar al-Awlaki, whom some think came up with the idea for “Inspire.” Bottom line: Yeah, it’s quite possible that Tsarnaev’s telling the truth about how they learned bombmaking. Abdo apparently took the same path. He just never made it as far as they did.

Exit question, in the spirit of lefty fingerpointing at tea partiers: Does this mean the anti-war movement’s guilty by association?

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the elder brother suspected in the Boston Marathon bombings, bought two large pyrotechnic devices in February from a New Hampshire branch of a national fireworks chain, according to executives at the chain’s parent company.

William Weimer, a vice president of Phantom Fireworks, said the elder Mr. Tsarnaev on Feb. 6 purchased two “Lock and Load” reloadable mortar kits at the company’s Seabrook, N.H. store, just over the border from Massachusetts. Each kit contains a tube and 24 shells, he said. Mr. Tsarnaev paid cash for the kits, which cost $199.99 apiece.

Cops are wondering if they used the powder from the fireworks to power the bombs, but the manufacturer thinks there wasn’t enough of it in two kits to generate explosions that big. Even so, go read this Boston Globe report from late March about a mysterious series of explosions in Hanover, Massachusetts involving homemade devices and “flash powder.” Actual quote from a local cop: “It appears there is someone exper­imenting with making these devices.” The explosions happened on March 12 and 15; on March 20, a friend of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev tweeted to him that he’d heard he’d been “poppen fireworks.” Hmmmm.

Blowback

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Comments

What conclusion(s) did you arrive at, after listening / watching his show, yesterday?

listens2glenn on April 23, 2013 at 1:44 PM

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Ha. Good one.
Guilty as charged…I didn’t listen.
I don’t don’t intend to help GB monetize these tragedies.
He’s a genius at it though…doesn’t need me.

verbaluce on April 23, 2013 at 1:48 PM

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Well … are you ever in the right place !
Here are the links (in two parts) to the hour of his radio broadcast, that began divulging the most damning evidence, yesterday. Commercial FREE !
The only thing you have to pay is TIME watching it.

Can someone put me some knowledge? Can I buy me a keg of gunpowder at an gun shop if I want to load my own? Not a keg really, but whatever it comes in. I noticed a webpage where you can order what looks like plastic jars of powder for like $12 per bottle. Is it easy or hard to do this in say PA? Would you need to show ID or something?

Dusty on April 23, 2013 at 2:14 PM

I can’t answer that, because I never used black powder. In PA the laws are less anal, but to buy in PA from NJ a purchaser has to have legal NJ ID/permit card.

In more restrictive states like MA and NJ, I can’t imagine they left black powder off the list of what’s restricted in those states. Here in NY, I can’t buy a non-firing replica of any gun made after 1898; the company can’t ship here unless the purchaser is registered as a re-enactment, theater, or police group. A valid purchase order with the group’s logo is required.

I had the same thought. And I have the perfect picture for them to use. A still from the video that apparently exists showing Tsarnaev putting that IED down three feet behind an eight-year-old.

BTW, I don’t know how solid the reporting is on what this bastard is and isn’t saying but I can’t help but notice there hasn’t been any reports of remorse for having killed and injured so many innocent people.

Happy Nomad on April 23, 2013 at 2:19 PM

I’d like seeing him as a toddler carrying a toy AK47. Headline: “Chris Matthews’ Head Explodes Live On National TV…Story at Eleven!”

Thanks, Liam. At least, I now know a purchase isn’t just a common off the shelf, cash and carry purchase process. I should have expected to have some requirements, but I just didn’t know.

How about just buying fireworks. Anyone know if the ingredient quality is basically the same for the purpose intended? Could Tamerlan just buy a grand worth (over time or whatever) of fireworks and get it that way?

The man responsible for it, Samir Khan, is long since dead in a U.S. airstrike — but not as the primary target. He was killed by the same missile that took out his pal, Anwar al-Awlaki, whom some think came up with the idea for “Inspire.”

The only question left for me, is where did Tamerlan meet his Al-Awlaki surrogate?

I have a feeling They met in Boston and then he was sent to Chechnya, where another operative entered the country and met him.

This way, Chechan jihadi’s don’t know both people meeting, just the Awlaki rep, and that guy only knows Tamerlan from the mosque he’s told to attend.

Then, Tamerlan comes back on his visa, training little bro on packing and detonation by using fireworks.

but the manufacturer thinks there wasn’t enough of it in two kits to generate explosions that big. Even so, go read this Boston Globe report from late March about a mysterious series of explosions in Hanover, Massachusetts involving homemade devices and “flash powder.”

Assuming it is them for the sake of further inquiry, where did they get the money for the rest of the explosives needed for all three bombs we know of, and for any test devices they set off?

The truth remains, cowardly murdering innocents is the only way Muslim men can feel they’ve accomplished anything. That and stoning a woman to death. Ok, that and clitoral mutilation. Why do liberals continue to put COEXIST stickers on their SUVs?

Fireworks are illegal in many states without permits and being a state-registered showman; private ownership is restricted.

The gunpowder in them is very fine-grained. For bullets, the powder is more of a shaped pellet, optimized for burn to produce maximum release of energy to propel a bullet at high velocity. I don’t think a gazillion firecrackers would be sufficient to cause the damage that was done. There would be an explosion, but I imagine that kind of powder would be classed as a low-explosive (yes, there is such a thing, of which black powder is considered one). Unless I’m mistaken, I believe rate of burn is the prime distinction. The military people and long-time gun experts here can tell you more.

I think with something like this, it would be foolish not to consider amongst the likelihoods both DT/Christian Identify types AND violent jihadists. You know, folks who have openly espoused and carried out violent acts here.
If it makes you feel better, I really don’t think anyone has concerns about the Tea Party. You seem to align Timothy McVeigh or Eric Rudolph types there. I certainly wouldn’t.

verbaluce on April 23, 2013 at 2:16 PM

This post is one of the most convoluted things I have ever read. What are you trying to say exactly? Are you conflating Christians with Radical Islamists?

At least I think I understand that you wouldn’t align McVeigh with Tea Party ideology unless you are trying and failing to be funny or ‘ironic’. McVeigh was an atheist with his own reasons for resenting the government that were catalyzed by the government murdering innocent women and children. No Tea Party-like link is available.

So when do we start blaming Code Pink for the casualties of Boston jihad ?
When do we start cavity searching grandma at airports for pressure cookers ?
When will the FBI go in to it’s silent mode after covering up investigating this jihady event ?

Assuming it is not a complete lie, “we acted alone” could simply mean no one else was involved on the day of the attack. No one else helped them place and detonate the bombs. It does not necessarily mean they did not get help, advice, guidance, instruction, and training from others prior to that — to build the bombs, test some, pick targets, reconnoiter the areas, pick a date, etc. It does not necessarily mean they did not have others encouraging them, cheering them on, and directing them to helpful Jihad For Dummies internet sites.

Also, it does not mean they did not get money from someone else to pay the bills — including the money to buy all of the necessary components and explosives to build the bombs and test some, plus money for guns and ammo.

I was responding to a post by someone complaining that ‘the left assumed it was the Tea Party’ or something.
Any ‘examples’ offered of this bias where theorizing on the possibility of a McVeigh type…the Tea Party not mentioned at all. So odd that anyone in the Tea Party would take offense…or suggest that those are in any way the same thing.
What I said was clear…that before we knew what it was…it wouldn’t have been illogical to consider the possibility that it was a Timothy McVeigh or and Eric Rudolph type.
As it also would have been illogical to not consider the possibility of AQ or some other type of Islamic jihadist terrorism.

Fireworks are illegal in many states without permits and being a state-registered showman; private ownership is restricted.

The gunpowder in them is very fine-grained. For bullets, the powder is more of a shaped pellet, optimized for burn to produce maximum release of energy to propel a bullet at high velocity. I don’t think a gazillion firecrackers would be sufficient to cause the damage that was done. There would be an explosion, but I imagine that kind of powder would be classed as a low-explosive (yes, there is such a thing, of which black powder is considered one). Unless I’m mistaken, I believe rate of burn is the prime distinction. The military people and long-time gun experts here can tell you more.

Liam on April 23, 2013 at 2:38 PM

This is all just speculation, but I have studied chemistry and physics and am a long-time reloader.

This type of device is about pressure build-up and release. The finer points about powder shape, burn rate, and explosive potential are largely irrelevant. The bombs they used were 6qt pressure cookers. Assuming 1 qt of that space was taken up by shrapnel and glue or wax lining the perimeter of the cooker, that leaves up to 5qts of volume for the explosive charge. That much of anything could produce an explosion the size of what we saw considering it will be held under pressure for a few milliseconds. One pound of gunpowder fits into something less than a quart sized container. Therefore, up to 6lbs of gunpowder could have been deposited in each pressure cooker. In that volume, it would not matter much what they used. Even the scrapings of thousands of match heads would do the trick.

As for speculation about how much these devices cost to make, they are very inexpensive. A pressure cooker costs $30 new–much less used. Gunpowder costs about $12 per pound. Shrapnel can be free, but is very inexpensive to purchase. The ignitor and detonator have not been disclosed, and I am not going to suggest possible items on HotGas. Let’s just say as little as $10 for a timed device to as much as $65 for a remote controlled device is reasonable. In short, the backpacks could have cost more than the bombs.

Exit question: if they scraped thousands of match heads and hundreds of watch hands for the contents of the bombs, would it be considered a nuke? Should we consult with the NORKS?

Perhaps, but it is worth noting that both McVeigh and Rudolf chose symbolic targets that immediately and obviously identified their motivations. McVeigh had a grievance with the government and chose a government building. Rudolph hated abortion and chose an abortion clinic. So following that logic, these bombers hated marathons? Boston restaurants? What?

At any rate, weren’t there some lefties out there breathlessly pointing out that it was Patriots Day?

Can someone put me some knowledge? Can I buy me a keg of gunpowder at an gun shop if I want to load my own? Not a keg really, but whatever it comes in. I noticed a webpage where you can order what looks like plastic jars of powder for like $12 per bottle. Is it easy or hard to do this in say PA? Would you need to show ID or something?

Dusty on April 23, 2013 at 2:14 PM

I live in MA but, it’s been many years since I’ve bought black powder. Back when I did I needed a state permit for firearms and a town or city permit. I was only allowed to buy one can at a time. I can’t remember how much was in a can but, I think it was 16oz.

MSM gave links to bomb making sites…one was something like – Make a Bomb in Your Mom’s Kitchen.

They gave several ways and at least two types (pressure cooker was one). One was a 2″ pipe bomb using 80 match heads ground to a fine powder and mixed with sugar…fuse was a one Christmas light. Hey, it’s making a bomb in Mom’s kitchen!

I was responding to a post by someone complaining that ‘the left assumed it was the Tea Party’ or something.

Any ‘examples’ offered of this bias where theorizing on the possibility of a McVeigh type…the Tea Party not mentioned at all. So odd that anyone in the Tea Party would take offense…or suggest that those are in any way the same thing.

verbaluce on April 23, 2013 at 3:02 PM

Yeah, that surely is odd.

Cause it ain’t like people haven’t been linking “McVeigh” types directly to the Tea Party non stop since its founding.

It ain’t like they did the exact same thing after the Giffords shooting.

It ain’t like they took the name of the Aurora shooting suspect and started checking Tea Party websites looking for a match.

It ain’t like they spent a week talking about a guy carrying an unloaded weapon on his shoulder, in plain view of the police, breaking no laws, blocks away from anywhere the president or any of his entourage would be, just waiting for the oft-referred “hail of bullets” to commence at any time.

Yeah, I guess this extrapolation just materialized out of thin air against a media that has said nary an unkind word toward the Tea Party.

BTW, Barry Nolan made the connection directly, on Thom Hartmann’s radio show yesterday.

A HuffPo article two days after the incident was titled Beyond… what Politics? You guessed it: TEA PARTY. It supposes that, even if it weren’t a “domestic right-wing terrorist”, it’s still the fault of right-wing foreign policy for making Chechens hate us.

But I guess, verb, you’re just going to keep splitting fine hairs about the use of less-incriminating phrases like “anti-tax groups” and countless references to “tax day” and “Patriots Day”

William Weimer, a vice president of Phantom Fireworks, said the elder Mr. Tsarnaev on Feb. 6 purchased two “Lock and Load” reloadable mortar kits at the company’s Seabrook, N.H. store, just over the border from Massachusetts.

That’s ironic.

The Democrat Left has used the town of Seabrook for political propaganda purposes for 4 decades now. It’s where they “defeated” the horrible nuclear power industry, and it’s also where they “succeeded” in running an Evil Corporation out of business. They still proudly hold up both as “achievements” of their imagined “superiority” to all others.

For those who never heard the story, Public Service Company, which had been a successful energy company for decades, offended the Left when it proposed building 2 reactors at Seabrook. Democrats by the thousands showed up at the site after construction began, and Republican Governor Mel Thomson locked them all up. They still kept coming.

A few years later, Mel retired, and the Democrats were able to put an easily-manipulated Activist Governor into office. Hugh Gallen sold PSNH down the river, and Unit 2 was scrapped. It still sits there today, while Unit 1 has been operating for decades with no major issues. And PSNH has arisen from the ashes and is an Evil Corporation again to the Left.

Fittingly today in Concord (the State Capitol) the modern State Office campus in East Concord, which includes the NH Supreme Court, is named after Thomson.

The state office campus named after Gallen? The ugly brick buildings of the old State Mental Hospital. Many of them don’t even have glass in their windows.

Bull (expletive) ….. you’ve already wasted much more time posting comments on this today, than it would take to watch the first (an most important) of those videos.

listens2glenn on April 23, 2013 at 3:20 PM

Why would you want me to see this?
He’s made no news of note with what he ‘knows’….other than being mocked for a typically theatrical presentation…’this is soooooo important and revealing. So…tune in Monday! 9am EST!’
Neither Ed nor Allah even see fit to mention his blabbering at all.
How much does Glenn get from you annually?
I understand he offers many ways to ‘give back’.

First, a bit of pedantry. Black powder is what we used for muskets & cannon up until about 1900 or so. It’s too unstable to use in a 6qt pressure cooker with friction inside the pot (the glue/shrapnel layer). Even dropping the knapsack with the pressure cooker inside runs the risk of premature detonation.

What was used was modern-day smokeless powder, the powder that is found in every rifle/pistol cartridge on the planet. You can easily buy smokeless powder over the ‘Net, at least in most states. The basic components of smokeless powder are nitrocellulose (guncotton) and nitroglycerin. The detonation velocity (how fast it explodes) of smokeless powder is 7,700 meters/second, well above the velocities for black powder, TNT, and TATP (think shoe/underwear bombers). The only “common” explosives with a faster detonation velocity are PETN (detonation cord), and RDX/HMX (plastique).

A 6qt pressure cooker, a layer of nails fixed in wax on the wall of the cooker, and an 8lb can of IMR 4831 (what I use to reload rounds for my .270 Winchester) pretty much matches up to the carnage we saw.

FWIW, FOX Special Report showed a clip of former Navy SEAL Jonathan Gilliam stating that the quality and effectiveness of the bombs produced “using crude materials off-the-shelf” shows him “there is some training there, it’s not just something somebody read”.

Seriously. You really need to educate yourself. There are Al Qaeda materials all over the internet that include step-by-step instructions for building the exact kind of bombs these guys used. They have already been tested all over the Middle East. The only skill they needed was the ability to follow directions. While I am not ready to discount the possibility they had outside help, they did not need it to build the bombs. As I stated in another thread, Inspire Magazine number 1431 has instructions for these bombs and the smaller pipe bombs they apparently used. The relevant article’s title is Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom or similar. Occam’s Razor says they used that article as their reference material. It is not hard to build a pressure cooker bomb. Nearly every reloader in the country has all the materials needed between his kitchen, attic, and garage.

Bull (expletive) ….. you’ve already wasted much more time posting comments on this today, than it would take to watch the first (an most important) of those videos.

listens2glenn on April 23, 2013 at 3:20 PM

.
Why would you want me to see this?
He’s made no news of note with what he ‘knows’….other than being mocked for a typically theatrical presentation…’this is soooooo important and revealing. So…tune in Monday! 9am EST!’
Neither Ed nor Allah even see fit to mention his blabbering at all.
How much does Glenn get from you annually?
I understand he offers many ways to ‘give back’.

verbaluce on April 23, 2013 at 5:43 PM

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Doesn’t matter what he gets from me and others, as long as he is T R U S T E D.
You’re not going to get away with implying that Glenn is a huckster, ripping us off for all he can, and then on that ‘false basis’ insist that he has no credibility.

IF … you watch the videos, then you’ll know what he has.
Until then, your just “venting” a predisposition you have towards him.

Re-posting the comments from this afternoon, that gave me cause to post those video links. You know, the ones you don’t have any time to watch.
.

Jack_Burton on April 23, 2013 at 1:27 PM
.sandee on April 23, 2013 at 1:28 PM
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Have you heard that there’s no investigation?
Who says we’re supposed to ‘take this as fact’?
I think the only one who thinks they have it all figured out if Glenn Beck.

verbaluce on April 23, 2013 at 1:38 PM

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What conclusion(s) did you arrive at, after listening / watching his show, yesterday?listens2glenn on April 23, 2013 at 1:44 PM
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Ha. Good one.
Guilty as charged…I didn’t listen.
I don’t don’t intend to help GB monetize these tragedies.
He’s a genius at it though…doesn’t need me.

1. Do you really think the FBI didn’t know who did it almost right away? Think for a second. What is the first police action you take when trying to find suspects? You pull all the files on all possibles.

“Hey Wally!” “Yeah Beav?” “Did you see that the Russians gave us a heads up a few years back on a bad guy and- wow!- he lives a couple of miles away. And look, here is his curly headed, smaller younger brother! And they look just like the pict… Rut Ro! Better tell the boss!”

They gave out the other photos trying to identify other members or to stall why they tried to figure out what to do next. Remember, a lot of brass was running around, not always in the interest of finding bad guys. They were trying to manage the damage. The line officers were trying to find the brothers and get a line on them and who was with them, balancing that against what possible threat they may pose. This isn’t CTU and Jack Bauer. People can get away from you and disappear.

Trust me, nobody wanted to have a cop killed and a huge firefight. The best way to handle suspects like these two is to keep quiet about what you know. If done right the first time they know you know is when the flashbang flies through their window and lands at their feet!

2. Notice that when the FBI catches someone in a controlled case there is almost always a cell to be rounded up. But when the bad guy gets by them, suddenly they are all lone wolves?

What are the chances. Seriously?

Ask these questions: 1. Where did they get the material? 2. The funding? 3. The intro the older brother had to have when he got to Russia (all gang/organized crime vets potential recruits. So do terrorists.) My buddy bets contacts inside the local mosque. 4. Where was the assembly site and the practice site. Nobody believes they just put bombs together for the first time without checking them out. 5. Track the purchases of the material. Almost everybody has security video in their stores. Make sure it is only the two standing there.

3. DHS had the FBI file. They had the travel history (Customs has it). That means someone in DHS was staring at what has become the almost comically stereotypical development of a homegrown terrorist. Their response? “No, no more citizenship for you!” (Soup Nazi style!) Yet didn’t pick up the phone or an email and shoot a note over to JTTF? (Which may have a Customs element in it)

4. Remember the two competing forces here. Good cops trying to do the right thing versus political correctness being driven by some very ideologically stubborn individuals. I’ve said for long time PC will get a lot of us hurt.